Written by Kyle Starks
Art by Piotr Kowalski
Published by Dark Horse Comics
I have to profess my absolute love for anything that Kyle Starks touches.
He started out making books that he both wrote and drew and they were a lot of fun.
In recent years, he has been doing a lot of writing. I’m glad that he has because a lot of his books have been absolutely fantastic. This book is as well, and I loved every second of it.
It is a unique take on a traditional horror story and it really had me going on every page.
The location of the story always plays a big factor in the books that Starks creates.
Here, the location is great.
It is a place called Wilmhurst. It is a gated community that holds all of the slashers (or types of horror movie villains) that we used to see in the horror movies growing up. If you ever wondered where they go, well, wonder no more. Starks creates a place for them to inhabit and it is very well developed.
Starks spends a little time letting us get to know the various villains and their lives.
He really has a way of taking characters that nobody else would think about and expanding them. It is wonderfully detailed and it actually those little details that make all of the difference in a book like this. I was into the book right away and was excited reading it.
The book introduces all of the villains involved in this town. We see a young boy on the run from a couple of them. He escapes and ends up going to the police. He tells them about the villains in the community and what they are doing there. The police actually take it upon themselves to do something at this point.
We then meet our main character of the book, who is the cop assigned to the case: Connor Hayes.
Connor Hayes is our protagonist and we learn that he survived his first slasher in summer camp. A few years after that, he had another confrontation with a villain who creates puzzles, not unlike Jigsaw from Saw. Connor has basically been put through the wringer. He is hurting and needs to find a way to strike back at these horrible villains that he keeps encountering. So off to the community he goes!
We then get to see Connor go up against these villains. The creative team doesn’t hold back in showing off the graphic nature of this horror tale. It is extremely fun and extremely graphic. Connor really takes it to them and I very much enjoyed the twists and turns that the story takes. Eventually, this community of horror people gets torn apart by the police but not before they make a few casualties of their own.
The book very much follows and sticks to a traditional horror formula, however it turns it all on its head. That is what the best horror stories do and Stark definitely gives us the inverse of that formula. He also gives us something completely unexpected. Honestly, the more I think about the book the more that I want to reread it. There are some many Easter eggs to contemplate.
By the end, we get that last “shocking” twist. The last story beat is beautiful because it makes it a complete story. It also leaves the door open for future installments if they wanted. I loved that, and there are definitely places that they can explore with this concept in future series.
Kyle Starks writes one hell of a good script here. It is fast and funny and full of character. Every part of it works and it is never boring. He has a real girt for dialogue as well, and it is apparent on every page that he has love for the material. It is great to see. The artwork by Piotr Kowalski is excellent as well. His line work is full of character in a way that a lot of his previous work hasn’t been. This is certainly his best work as an artist thus far.
All in all this is a great book. I loved every second of it and if there are future installments, I would pick them up in a second.
RATING: A
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